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September 8, 2005

Google and Geico Settle Suit

Posted by Adam Viener

Google and Geico have agreed to settle the lawsuit brought by Geico claming that Google infringed on their trademarks by allowing people to bid on the term Geico. Terms of the agreement were not released.

In December, a federal judge ruled in Google's favor indicating that bidding on competitive trademark terms alone was not a violation. This spurred Google's change in their trademark policies, in the US, to stop disallowing trademark keywords, but instead focus on disallowing trademarks in advertising copy. Google will still disallow some trademark terms on ads that are run in other countries (or set to run globally).

Since Google already had a ruling against it, a settlement at this time, indicates that Google probably had appealed the case, and both sides have decided to stop paying the lawyers at this time.